High-performance liquid chromatography of retinals, retinols (vitamin A1) and their dehydro homologues (vitamin A2): improvements in resolution and spectroscopic characterization of the stereoisomers.

A study of mobile phases for the improved high-performance liquid chromatographic resolution of retinal, 3-dehydroretinal, retinol and 3-dehydroretinol stereoisomers is described. By using 1-octanol as a phase modifier in n-hexane, the simultaneous separation of a complex mixture of vitamin A1 and A2 isomers was satisfactorily achieved, while the separation of the corresponding aldehydes required a ternary mixture of 2-propanol, dioxane and n-hexane. All peaks were spectroscopically characterized by recording their UV spectra, which are reported together with comparative tables of the absorbance maxima of the stereoisomers.